Are Supplements Necessary For Bodybuilding?

Most men have been there before, searching high and low to find a quick easy fix to get washboard abs and bigger muscles overnight. Typically, bulking up on protein filled foods is the best way to gaining muscle but protein supplements are becoming increasingly popular. The question is if they work or not.

Even still with eating these protein filled foods, its best to watch the amount you’re eating, overeating can cause weight to be added to your waist line instead of muscle mass. Supplements can’t be a replacement for the exercise necessary to bodybuilding but they do assist with the nutrients needed to help gain muscle mass.

The more you exercise, small tears begin to occur in muscles, this increases blood flow to the muscles, and protein synthesis molecules repairs these tears, this then makes the muscles bigger and tougher. Muscle protein synthesis starts with two stages, one – the breakdown stage, and two – the growth stage, this can be accelerated by consuming more proteins.

To increase muscle growth, it’s imperative you focus on a workout regime and more importantly, a diet. It’s also important that your body has access to as much protein as possible to supply the fuel your body needs.

Muscle Tension: In order to gain muscle, you need to carry a large amount of stress to what your body or muscles have previously adapted to, this can be done through lifting weights.

Muscle Damage: Ever felt really sore after a workout? That’s due to localized muscle damage during the workout. This then causes a release of inflammatory molecules, and immune system cells that cause satellite cells to jump into action.

Metabolic Stress: That burning feeling during exercising is called metabolic stress, in which causes swelling around the muscles, this helps with muscle growth.

Caffeine is a commonly used stimulant before working out, it has been scientifically shown to increase endurance, muscle power, and exercise performance in all athletes that are in a tired or in sleep deprived state.

Multivitamins are another popular helpful tool to assist with bodybuilding, they’re mainly essential when dieting for competitions, eliminating foods that contain calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin D and magnesium means a loss of valuable vitamins, so that’s when multivitamins come into play.

Whey is a liquid that remains after milk has been curdled and strained, this is rapidly digested and has an amazing ability to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. There are three different ways to take Whey.

Whey powder – 11-15% protein and can be used as an additive for many food products

Whey concentrate – 25-89% protein and is used in supplements

Whey Isolate – 90+% protein and is used in supplements

In 2016, statistics show that 28.37 billion dollars was spent in the sports nutrition market in the U.S, and it’s predicted to increase to 45.27 billion by 2022.

Statistics also show what proteins were popular in 2016;

Multivitamins (75%)

Vitamin D (37%)

Vitamin C (34%)

Calcium (29%)

Vitamin B/B Complex (24%)

Omega 3/Fatty Acids (20%)

Vitamin E (16%)

Fiber (16%)

Magnesium (15%)

Protein (15%)

Probiotics (13%)

Green Tea (13%)

75% in which were taking multivitamins, which are a key pill to take during bodybuilding.

In the end, you need to force stress on your muscles, load your body up with protein, and supplements will definitely help and ensure that you’re getting that much needed vitamins as you bulk up. Supplements are a great help to speed up the process but you have to put the extra work in so that the supplements actually do their job.